Zeno - The responses, collectively, portray the multi-faceted nature of the problem: human behavior, institutional behavior, egos, hunger....etc. Approaching this problem will reveal as much as anything about the particular nature of your institution and your political skills. First, they are not your pianos. You can't take it personally. If you have no support from the Chair or higher, the only sure result is a job opening at BC. With that support you have some fraction of a chance, but, as Alan Crane said: >We maintain that the students and faculty (and visitors) have better >things to >do than to make judgement calls as to what items are, and are not, >appropriate for placement on expensive instruments. >If there's nothing on the piano, there's no problem; and that's that. This means that any policy must have some relationship to the real world behaviors. For example, if it's accepted practice for students, or faculty to eat or drink (coffee, water, etc) in rooms where there are pianos, then David Ilvedson's possibly facetious post: >So would little tray like table in a piano studio not be >possible. I'd like to see that and a waste basket in each studio >along with a fake video camera in the corner...I guess we might as >well put the hand cleaner on the wall with paper towels while we at it... '-] might be very much the direction to go; that is, provide the amenities that will support the behaviors you are trying to cultivate. (By the way, that includes coat hooks.) If such behaviors are to be prohibited, make sure it's the Dean or Department Head who spells it out to the faculty, as it pertains both to their own behavior and to their role as enforcer. In these modren times, there can be no double standard - one for faculty, another for students. If there is to be a Faculty revolt, it should be directed at them, not you. A reasonably good time to enact any significant changes in the prevailing behaviors would be at the initiation of a new facility. On the other hand, you could have fun with the possibility of developing a community-wide fear of you, the enforcer. That's a different kind of experiment. Regards - David Skolnik Hastings on Hudson, NY At 10:48 AM 4/27/2009, you wrote: >Best response I've heard from a student, when (politely) asked to >remove his slice of pizza from the top of the >piano: "But..but...where am I supposed to put my pizza?" (To be >read with just the right amount of indignation, shock, and outrage!) > >Regards, >Zeno Wood >Brooklyn College -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/caut_ptg.org/attachments/20090427/82939dab/attachment.html>
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